


Secret Admirer

by kathiann



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: F/M, Romance, Secret Admirer, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-14
Updated: 2009-02-16
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathiann/pseuds/kathiann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wanted to write a Valentines Day story, and here it is. Van Pelt has a secret admirer, but who could it be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to write a Valentines Fic, and here it is. I wanted to post the first part at least on Valentines, so I didn't have time to wait for a beta read, so please forgive any little grammar mistakes. Hope you like it.

Valentines' Day was so depressing. She didn't have a boyfriend this year, she was all alone, in a new city, at a new job, her family was far away, and her last boyfriend had had no interest in coming to Sacramento with her when she had got this job. Everyone around her seemed to have a boyfriend or girlfriends, someone to be with.

People had been getting flowers delivered all day. From small bequests to large ones, from daisies to roses, they just kept coming. It was starting to get on her nerves. If one more flower delivery person walked through the door, she just might pull out her gun and shoot them.

Speak of the devil, a delivery guy was walking through the door with one of the largest bouquet of roses that had come through all day. There had to be al lest two dozen. The delivery guy could barely see over the top.

He sat the vase down on the table in the middle of the room and called out "I have a delivery for a Grace Van Pelt."

She was surprised, and for a minute just sat there. Cho actually spoke up before she did.

"The red head" he said looking up form is book and pointing at her.

"Oh right." She said coming out of her daze. The delivery man walked up to her with the roses and a clip board.

"Sign here," she did so, and the man walked away.

She stood there for a few minutes, looking at the flowers, trying to figure out who sent them.

"Don't just stand there," said Cho breaking into her thoughts, "Read the card."

She hadn't even noticed the card, but there it was, just staring her in the face, patiently waiting to be picked up. She reached in, being careful in case there were any thorns. She opened the card and read

Your hair is red  
Your eyes are blue  
I think I love you  
From guess who

She just stared at the card for a few minutes. Trying to figure out who the card was from, and who would write something so cheesy.

"So who's it from?" Cho asked impatiently, or as impatient as Cho would ever sound.

"I don't know." Grace was still looking at the card.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"The cards not signed. It just has a silly little poem." She held the card up for Cho to see.

He walked over and looked at the card, snorting as he read it. "Looks like your secret admirer is an armature poet."

"Any ideas who it could be?"

"Well, yea, the obvious one, but you think he would have signed his name. It's not like everyone doesn't know that he likes you."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She denied, but still felt her cheeks getting red.

Lisbon walked into the room and saw the roses. "Holy cow," she said "that is some flower arrangement Van Pelt; I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"I don't. The card is unsigned."

"I'm sure it was Rigsby."

"Yea, but you think he would have signed his name."

"I've been working with him for a while, I know his hand writing, let me see the card."

Grace handed her the card and noticed that she too chuckled when she read it. "Well, the poem could defiantly be Rigsby, but the hand writings not. He could have had the person at the shop write it."

"Or it could be someone else." They were all standing around, thinking about it when Jane and Rigsby came in and stopped dead in their tracks when they all saw what the rest of the team was looking at. Jane let out a low whistle, and Rigsby said "Wow."

"Yea I know right." Said Cho.

"Who sent them to you?" asked Jane.

"I don't know. Here read the card." Grace handed the card to Jane, and Rigsby read over his shoulder. Jane smiled and Rigsby snorted.

"That's kind of lame." Said Rigsby, shaking his head.

"I think it's sweet," said Jane, handing the card back to Grace. "Any ideas?"

"A couple, but one of them just took themselves out of the running," she said while glaring at Rigsby, he didn't seem to notice. He was chatting quietly with Cho.

"Hum," was Jane's only response.

"Come on Jane, you must have some idea." Said Lisbon, "You notice everything that goes on around here."

"Maybe." He turned and walked toward his couch. "I think we should just wait and see who it turns out to be." He smiled slightly, like he already knew, and lay down.

"Well, I suppose he's right." Lisbon said, turning to Grace. "At least you got flowers on Valentine's Day. That is always nice."

"Yea, it is" she agreed.

"I suppose we should all get to work it we want to get home at any time tonight. That means you too Jane." She said looking over at the consultant who just waved his hand at her and continued to lie there with his eyes closed. "Good luck with that." She said to Grace and then left the room.

Grace sat at her desk and looked around for a few minutes. Who could it be? Who could it be?


	2. Chocolate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Ebony10 for being my beta. Here's the second part, I hope you like it.

It had been a week since Grace had received the flowers for Valentine's Day. A week spent wondering who had sent them. She was beginning to doubt that it was anyone at work. That didn't matter right now, though. She had more important things to focus on—like the dead body lying on the floor in front of her.

They had received the call this morning, and had driven five hours to reach this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, California. They were here because the toughest thing the local sheriff ever had to do was make sure the local drunk didn't get behind the wheel every night. It was a little like Mayberry. The only hotel in town was not a hotel at all, but a small family run bed and breakfast. As luck would have it, there were enough rooms available for the whole team, so they wouldn't have to drive an hour to the next town which had an actual hotel.

They had spent all day interviewing people, trying to figure out why someone would want to kill a small-town housewife. Personally, she thought it was the neighbor. He seemed obsessed with her to the point of being a stalker. The husband was also looking good for it; they had had a troubled marriage. It seemed everyone in town knew that. If she had to bet on it though, her money was on the neighbor. He just seemed to know way more about the woman than a normal person should, even for a small town.

She walked in the door of the B&B with Lisbon and was stopped by the little old woman who ran the place before they could get upstairs.

"Is one of you Grace?" she asked in a sweet voice.

"That's me, ma'am." Said Grace, stepping towards her.

"This was delivered for you today while you were out. I hope you don't mind that I signed for it." The woman held out a rectangular shaped box.

"Not at all, ma'am Thank you." Grace took the box and noticed that is was a box of chocolates from a local store in town. "Did a card come with it?"

"Oh yes, my dear. Didn't I give it to you?" She looked a little surprised that it had not been there and went to look for it where she had kept the box. "Ah, here it is dear. It's very sweet of your man to send you chocolates. Is it a special occasion?"

"Every day is a special occasion with him, ma'am," interrupted Lisbon. "Thank you for holding those for her." She then prodded Grace in the back, who mumbled thank you, and they both went upstairs.

When they got to Grace's room, both the agents went inside and Grace sat on the bed, staring at the card. "I wonder if it says who it's from," she said.

"I bet it has another cheesy poem in it." Lisbon laughed. Grace just sighed and pulled the card from the envelope. She quickly read the card to herself and then out loud.

"Chocolate is brown

Vanilla is white

Don't just sit there

Take a bite"

"Interesting and not signed?" Asked Lisbon. Grace could tell she was trying not to smile.

"No, it's not signed." She thought for a minute, "But if the person who sent them bought the chocolates in town, the store might know who paid for them."

"We are done for the day if you want to go find out." Said Lisbon, indicating that she thought it would be a good idea.

"I think I will."

Grace walked down the street. She had just come from the candy store. The young girl behind the counter had remembered the order that had been sent to Grace. The guy had called on the phone to order the chocolate and had paid by a gift card purchased at the same chocolate shop in the next town over. Grace had called the chocolate shop in the next town, and discovered that the gift card had been purchased in cash. The person working in that shop didn't remember what he had looked like. It was as if the guy was doing everything in his power to keep from being found out. It was driving her crazy.

As she got back to the B&B they were staying in she saw Jane sitting on the front porch. "Did you enjoy your chocolates?" He called as she came up the steps.

Grace was immediately suspicious, "How did you know I got chocolate?"

"I'm psychic," he joked, "No, really Lisbon told us. Rigsby had wanted to know where you had gone."

"Did you guys go over to the next town at all today?" Asked Grace. She was hoping to find out if one of the guys had had a chance to go into the other chocolate store.

"No, we stayed around town most of the day. We were talking to the people at the victim's work. Lovely group of people."

"Oh, ok. See you later." She went inside. Another dead end. She would just have to wait and see if he sent anything else to figure out who it was.


	3. Jewlery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Ebony10 for being my beta.

It had been a week since Grace had received the chocolate and two since she had received the roses. The chocolate had been really good, the note equally cheesy. She was actually very flattered at the attention that she felt when she got the gifts. She was wondering if today, like the previous weeks, there would be a delivery for her.

They had finished their previous case, it had been the neighbor, and were back in Sacramento. The weather had decided to turn nasty and it was currently looking like World War III outside. The wind was blowing like nothing else, and the rain was coming down in sheets. They were all still here because of the backup generator. The power all over town was out. There were tree limbs all over the ground, and it was really looking nasty.

Even if her secret admirer was going to send her something, she highly doubted that whoever was supposed to deliver it would be coming on today of all days.

"Mail call!" the mail boy called out to the people in the room. "Bet you all thought I wasn't going to come today."

"Not at all." Said Jane "Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night shall keep a post man from his assigned rout. Or something like that."

"That is right, however, it generally applies to the actual mail men. It is however a slow mail day, which is why you get me in person, and not just a bundle of mail dropped at the nearest person's desk."

"How kind of you." Said Lisbon, she had come out of her office when the mail boy had arrived.

"OK, I've got what looks like a bunch of official letters of you agent Lisbon, what looks like more fan mail for our favorite consultant and a package for Agent Van Pelt." He said handing out the mail. "Everyone enjoy!" ha called and walked back out of the room.

"You get fan mail?" Rigsby asked Jane with a smirk.

"Only sometimes." He replied.

The two of them and Cho continued to talk about the fan mail, while Lisbon walked over to Van Pelt's desk. "Who's the package from?"

"There's no return address. Do you think it could be from _him_?"

"I'd almost count on it." Lisbon responded.

Grace looked at the package nervously. "If you don't open that soon, I'm going to open it myself" said Lisbon.

"Ok, ok, I'll open it." She slowly cut the tape at the top of the padded envelope and put her hand inside. The first thing she pulled out was a card in a light blue envelope. It read simply "Grace" on the front of it. She opened the card and showed it to Lisbon.

"Puppies with balloons, very cute. What's the poem inside say?"

"How do you know there's a poem?"

"You don't have to be Jane to be able to see a pattern."

"Fine." She opened the card and read and reread the poem inside. There was no way that the poem meant what she thought it did.

"What does it say?" Lisbon asked impatiently. By this time, the guys had also come over to see what Grace and Lisbon were talking about.

"Another gift from your secret admirer?" asked Cho.

"Yea." Grace was still looking at the card. Lisbon got fed up with waiting, and grabbed it from her hands

"Thank you." She said and quickly read the card. "Does this mean what I think it does?"

"I don't know. I'm almost afraid to look."

"Well, what does it say?" Asked Rigsby impatiently.

Lisbon looked at Grace for her permission and then read

"Diamonds are clear

Emeralds are green

I'll always be near

If you know what I mean"

"What" said Cho, "Does that mean he sent you jewelry?"

Grace didn't say anything, she just tipped the padded envelop on end and dropped a long unmarked box on her desk. She was nervous, what if it was something really expensive. She took a deep breath and opened the box. She let out her breath and smiled. Lisbon came around the desk to see what was in the box and also smiled.

"So I'm guessing it's not precious gems" said Jane with a smile. Grace just took the jewelry out of the box and held it up. It was a delicate gold chain with a pendant on it that was two hearts twined together.

"It says forever for my love on it." Grace said. "I love it."

"I am so jealous," said Lisbon. "I wish I had a secret admirer."

"I just wish I knew who it was." Grace said. It was very intriguing.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out" Lisbon said patting her on the back. "Alright every one, we may be stuck here for the night, but we still have work to do."

"Sure boss." Said Jane as he turned and went back over to lie on the couch. Rigsby and Cho also walked back to their desks, leaving Grace to look at the necklace. She wanted to put it on, but was going to wait until she got home, incase whoever it was that gave it to her was still watching. It was going to drive her crazy, but she would hold off. If he wouldn't say who he was, she wasn't going to give him the pleasure of knowing how much she liked the necklace. He would just have to wait for a few days to see her wearing it.


	4. The Reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last part. If you haven't read Chapter three yet, please go back and read that first. You could conceivably read this one before that one, but I spent time on it, and I would like it to get read. I think most people will enjoy the little twist at the end.

It had been another week and Rigsby was getting nervous. Grace should be getting another gift today and he had no idea who was sending them to her. It just didn't seem fair. Ever since the case with that jerk Frick and his horrible advice about how to treat women, Grace wouldn't give him the time of day. He had really screwed up and, now, he had lost any chance of getting her.

"Hey, Jane," he said quietly coming up and sitting next to Jane who was lying down on the couch. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." Jane replied without opening his eyes.

"Oh, come on man, I'm serious." He said.

"OK, what's up?" he sat up and looked at him.

"Do you know who's sending Van Pelt all those gifts?"

"You mean it's not you?" Jane asked with a note of surprise in his voice.

"No it's not me. I was hoping you might know."

"Well, that only leaves two real possibilities." Jane said with a chuckle.

"Who?"

"Me and Cho." Jane said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"It couldn't be Cho. I mean, he never even goes out. Well, except for that one time, when you dressed him all up, but, no, it couldn't be him."

"If you insist," said Jane laying back down and leaving Rigsby to mull over what they had just talked about.

"Have you seen Cho lately?" He asked nervously.

"Nope, not since lunch."

Rigsby got up and started to pace around the room. He couldn't believe it. Cho knew he liked Van Pelt. Why would he go behind his back and send her all those gifts? He had to talk to him before she found out. Maybe he could find out what he was thinking. They were friends, weren't they? At least he thought they were.

Cho walked in the door. He had had a nice lunch and he was feeling good, not that anyone would be able to notice. He tried not to show his emotions if he could avoid it. And then he saw Rigsby. The look on his face clearly said that he knew.

"Hey, how was your lunch?" Cho asked Rigsby as he walked in and sat down at his desk. He was trying to avoid looking at him. He knew what was coming. It wasn't going to be pretty.

"You," Rigsby spat out.

"Yes, it's me." He saw no need to deny it.

"How could you do it? You know how I feel."

"Yeah and I was sick of it. I knew you weren't going to do anything on Valentine's Day and I knew she would be disappointed. I wanted to make her happy."

"But, we're buddies. I mean, I thought we were."

Yeah, he knew they were buddies; never poach a buddy's girl. That's what sucked about all of this. "I did it for you."

"What?"

"Yeah. I knew you were never going to do anything, so I figured I'd help you out. Anything to get you to stop dragging your feet."

"How'd you decide what to do?"

"Simple. Love and affection."

"See," Jane called from across the room, "He remembered."

Rigsby glanced over at him, but didn't say anything in response. "So, what did you do for today?"

Cho looked at him with a dead pan look on his face. "Why would I have done something?"

"You got her flowers, chocolate, jewelry. You have to have done something."

"Why don't you do something?"

"I don't know what to do! What would you do?"

He would have to ask that question. "I would take her out to dinner. Show her a good time. Show her that I like her by taking her dancing. Ask her with a single rose and just tell her that you like her, but don't push. You know what Jane said: love and affection."

"How'd you get so…how do you know so much about women?"

"I just listen when they talk and follow my heart."

Before Rigsby could fully process what Cho had said, Grace walked in the door with Lisbon. It was obvious that they were wondering if there was going to be another gift for her today. Cho noticed Rigsby just staring at her and reached into his desk to pull out a rose and a card.

"Hey, Van Pelt, these were left for you while you were at lunch."

"Thank you, Cho." She said, a little surprised at the change of tactics and came forward to take them from him.

As she read the note, Cho nudged Rigsby forward to stand in front of Van Pelt.

"What's it say?" Asked Lisbon.

"The first time I met you  
I knew it was true  
And here I am now  
Watching you.

Just look up."

As she read the last line, she looked up to see Rigsby standing in front of her. "It was you?"

"Yep, it was."

"Why didn't you just say so?" She was in shock. She really had no idea he had it in him.

"After the way I treated you before, I didn't think that you would give me the time of day so I decided to do this instead."

"Oh, that's so sweet." She reached up and gave him a hug.

""Uh, do you want to go out to dinner with me tonight?"

"I would love to." She smiled at him and he smiled at her. Lisbon just rolled her eyes.

"Why don't you guys just get a head start on that dinner? You're both going to be useless to me today." She said with a smile. She didn't have to tell them twice. Rigsby grabbed her hand and they both practically ran out the door. Lisbon just shook her head again and walked into her office.

"It's hard, isn't it?" Jane said, coming up to stand next to Cho who was still looking at the door that Grace and Rigsby had exited through just a few moments earlier.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said in his normal dead pan.

"You had no intention of letting Rigsby get the girl. A smart girl like Van Pelt, he doesn't deserve her."

"He loves her, he'll treat her right. He just might need a little help on occasion."

"Anything you say, Cho." Jane said patting him on the back and going to sit back down on his couch.

Cho just stood there. Rigsby didn't deserve her, but that was not his decision to make. It was hers. And he really did like her, or, at least he _thought_ that he loved her. Really there was nothing he could do. It would have just made things weird at work if he had gone through with what he had planned. Maybe he could ask his neighbor out to dinner tonight, it would be a shame to let a good reservation go to waste.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think. Didn't see that coming did you? Well, some people did, but really, only bulletproofweeks got close to guessing that more than one person would end up getting involved. Don't forget to review to let me know what you think.

**Author's Note:**

> So who do you think it is? Write a review and let me know. I'm not actually sure who it's going to be yet myself, but I suppose I'll figure it out eventually :), JK, I have a good idea who it's going to be.


End file.
